Poll coming…
I first heard about this procedure back in med school, in the very early 80’s. Unfortunately it seemed to fall out of favor in Western medicine. Too bad, it seems quite effective against relapsing C. difficile, an infection that costs a fair number of lives each year. Mortality due to C. difficile has has quadrupled in the last 15 years.
So, would you undergo this procedure?
It seems a bit olde-style to use actual feces for it,Why can’t you grow a nice community in agar and pump it up there?
Actually, they do process it, removing the undigested food. But it contains such a wide number of different species of bacteria, and subspecies to boot, that trying to grow them all in the correct ratios in a petri dish would be rather difficult. A strain or three that turn out to be vital for positive effects might not thrive there, and then be absent from the transplanted material.
Can I be a donor?
That is, if I give a shit.
Absolutely. I read something the other day that C. diff has now outpaced MRSA as the nosocomial infection agent of choice in some hospitals. That’s kinda scary.
But really, I’d do it for lesser reasons. I just don’t have a huge ick factor for feces. (Now, if your treatment remedy involved me fondling people’s eyeballs, I’d have issues.)
[Mod mod]Changed "transplanation’ to “transplantation” in title.[/Mod mod]
Bah, eyeballs aren’t that bad. 
(OK, people who work in ophthalmology/optometry think that; nearly everyone else gets the heebie-jeebies.)
If I had to have it… I’d really prefer the from-below method, thanks. Just in case there’s a leak in the pipe.
Are you awake when it’s happening?
I just told my wife why I need to update my donor card and Living Will.
She looked at me funny.
Why would they sedate you for an enema?
I heard that the infants of some animal species, such as koalas, consume their mother’s feces in order to build up a colony of digestive bacteria. I’d undergo the procedure (not orally natch, but by transplantation, just to clarify things.) if my life depended on it. I assume all sterile precautions would be undertaken to prevent infection by undesirable illnesses as a result of the operation.
I give people shit every single day. What can I say, I have a generous ass.
Sure I’d do it if it would benefit my health–I just really don’t see a problem with it at all. If a doctor says do X, I do X.
For the umpteenth time in my life, I’m so glad that my desire to be a doctor as a kid lessened as I got older (that frog in 8th grade biology was the first blow). I mean, I just don’t really wanna sit around and think about the possible benefits of sticking one person’s poop up another person’s ass (anymore than I’ve done so already by reading this thread).
There was a NY Times article about this over the summer.
I’d do it, no problem. From your link: * “The cost of goods is low, unlikely to be in short supply, and unlikely to be addictive. It is obvious that feces have the right stuff,” Dr. Gerding said. *
Also, “You need to dedicate a blender” for the procedure, Dr. Bakken noted. And, “Severe [C. difficile infection] represents the single situation when you should be willing to take crap from your spouse,” Dr. Bakken joked.
I guess these guys have had a lot of time while blending turd slurries to come up with some good jokes.
If your shit’s all retarded I’d rather not take the chance personally…
The OP said it could be done through a nasogastric or nasoduodenal tube.
It sounds less awful then many medical procedures.
Sure I would, but through the NOSE? Ew.
If it works, it works. Sign me up if I’m ever wasting away from a C. diff infection. To be honest, I’d rather start with that before resorting to the vancomycin attack. It cures me and it doesn’t contribute to the antibiotic resistance problem? Then by all means, sign me up for that shit.
Can I freeze my own sample in case I ever need it?